collecting junk on the porch

Posted on May 6, 2013 by zefiart

On the weekend I finally got a bit of work done on the porch.

I had planned to have the entire porch (and house) painted by now, but oh well… them’s the breaks. I only got so far (to the high bits) before winter set in. Now its too cold and too damp to paint outdoors.

Oh gee…. guess I have to stop, huh?

So this weekend I moved everything back to where it was meant to be, instead of pulled out into the middle of the porch so I could paint.

Now that the sun isn’t an issue (lack of it might be soon enough) I could move some of the potted plants to the front of the house. They spent the summer cowering under the shadow of the casita. Seriously… the only thing that survived the heat on our front porch is a cactus.

I collected the rusty, galvanised and just plain old bits and pieces and put them near the front porch where the ground is uneven and ugly. Now its just a collection of junk covering an ugly spot.

I am not above some fake greenery till the real stuff grows!

I also to around to putting the louvre doors I bought eons ago (and painted to match the house) on the porch to hide the hot water cylinder.

I hinged them together, put a hook on each side to hook them to the wall to keep them in place, and to keep the wind from blowing them into the dam. Now I have a huge big louvre door ‘cupboard’ on the porch instead of a smaller round hot water cylinder…

Maybe I should have just painted the water cylinder.

Still, I’m nothing if not stubborn. I planned to put it there so I will darn well put it there and LIKE it.

I have tried to make it interesting by adding some more of my old tool crates (collections of old hand tools on shallow old crates). And hung a few interesting things on the louvres as well… More on that in another post.

Meanwhile we now have 2 separate sitting areas on the porch. One is for eating – hence the higher table… sporting another rusty item with fake greenery (heheh).

The other is the bright/navy blue adirondack chairs with their small table. These are for sitting and relaxing. If its warm enough. And not windy. And not rainy and windy in which case the rain gets blown right onto the porch.

The birds meanwhile are still here. They haven’t gone south for the winter. Or is it north when you live in Australia? I doubt they’d fly to the South Pole for winter.

Their presence has given rise to a new name for the porch – the poop deck.

new boots!

Posted on March 20, 2013 by zefiart

I got me some new boots!

I’ve wanted a pair of these babies since I first saw them ages ago. I even ordered a pair with paisley bottoms online but they after months of “they’ll be in soon” I finally got the dreaded “Sorry, we can no longer supply them” email.

The boot in the photo isn’t MY boot. Mine are similar but have flowers and more red and pink and orange.

While wasting time in the city yesterday after work I had a look in an outdoor shop I rarely visit. They had one pair of these boots on sale for half price.

I just had to have them.

I don’t know if its a good thing or a bad thing that I’m excited about the fact that I just bought mud boots.

Way classier than gum boots, but still…. boots for mucking around in the mud.

sag drag and fall

Posted on March 17, 2013 by zefiart

I am so tired.

I finally got up on that ladder and painted under the eaves on the east side of the house so that side is now finished.

Well… almost finished. I still have to paint the window surrounds and nail the wire up to keep the birds out. I can hear one scratching around in the ceiling over my desk as I type…

I still have two more sides to paint the high bits, under the eaves, the window surrounds and the rails. And adding wire to keep out birds.

Then I have to consider oiling or staining the deck…

It never ends.

I used to flip flop and fly but now I sag drag and fall. (lyrics from an old rockabilly song).

My neck and upper back ache from balancing precariously on the ladder and reaching above my head to paint. My hair has tips in it. None a hairdresser put in, more like the ones I give myself as I lean back to paint a bit on one side while my hair brushes the bits I painted on the other side…

And the weather, which was so uncooperative for so long, being stinking hot and windy, has suddenly turned chilly.

I think summer is over and I haven’t yet finished painting the house.

I need to put all other projects on hold and get it done before winter really sets in. Once the rains start I think it’ll be next summer before the rails dry enough to apply paint.

Meanwhile, on an exciting note, I’ve been in touch with the family who bought Ben. He’s doing well and they love him. I’m so glad. When they were here they said they may have a couple of horses which might suit me. I got photos of one of them the other day.

Meet Chester, a chestnut standard bred boy, 15hh, 10 years old.

I’m in love.

He’s gorgeous, isn’t he? I love boys anyway so I may be a bit biased. But he’s just so pretty! And such a lovely colour.

At this point I confess that I’ve always had a mistrust of chestnuts, ever since a chesnut boy named Tito threw me repeatedly when I was taking riding lessons many years ago. But Chester has a trustworthy face, don’t you think?

At 15hh, Chester is a lot smaller than Ben too. When we bought Ben he was 16hh according to what we were told. He’s now 16.3hh. He’s huge. He grew tons while we had him. As you can imagine, the drop from 15 hands is a lot less than the drop from 16.3 hands.

I always wanted a BIG horse. My first horse was a 14.3hh quarter horse x named Schnapps. I wanted a 16-17hh horse then. Now I’m leaning the other way…

I might even have a hope in hell of getting my leg up into the stirrup of a 15hh horse.

We can only hope!

Anyway, I’ll share photos of the mare they have too, an appaloosa… then we’ll go out one day in a couple of weeks and I’ll get to ride them and see how I feel about them. I’m so excited!

blindingly blue chairs

Posted on March 11, 2013 by zefiart

Yesterday we picked up my new adirondack chairs.

When I chose the colour for them I wanted them dark dark navy blue. Deep and rich. I took home swatches and compared and deliberated…

And I STILL got it wrong!

Does this look like rich dark blue to you?

To me it looks like a vibrant cobalt blue.

This is what the swatch looks like:

Sigh. It looked dark blue to me.

On the chairs: vibrant blue. Greek island blue.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that… just, its not the blue I was going for. And it cost a ton as well cause its an ultra deep base. AND I have a ton of it left over.

It might be the fact that I chose gloss paint and the surface of the chairs is slightly ridged. They’re made out of treated pine so they can be left outside in the weather and not get ruined. That’s also why I chose gloss paint… easier to wipe bird poop off.

Still, I guess I can live with them for now. Maybe if I put the over on the dam side of the porch, where there’s no roof and they’ll be exposed to the sun and rain, they’ll dull down a bit.

I love them… They’re great chairs. Really comfy and well made. But so bright! Ugh. Maybe I should have just stuck to white. Can’t go wrong with white….

You may have noticed the flour sacks making another appearance as cushions. Can’t leave them outside when we’re not home though. Romeo would use them as chew toys and Montana and Barney would sleep on them. White and dog prints don’t mix well.

I found this cute little ex wire birdhouse. It used to have some sort of fibre stuff on it but that’s long gone. There’s still some bird poop on it though. I love the wonkiness of it. I’ll be doing something with this soon.

Meanwhile I mentioned shopping, did I not? Well, lately I’ve been on a mission to get a sink into the mud room. Outside the toilet.

The toilet is small and cause of the way the door swings and the window, there’s no space for a tiny sink in there. Plus Wayne has huge hands, can you imagine him trying to wash his hands in a sink the size of an espresso cup?

I’ve never minded the fact that our toilet is off the mud room (it used to be outside!), but I’ve hated that in order to wash your hands after using the ‘facilities’ you have to walk through the mud room, through the entry/pantry area, through the kitchen, into the hallway and into the bathroom. Now (well, soon) we’ll be able to wash our hands right after doing our business. What a novel experience for us!

So, in my quest for the perfect sink I looked at quite a few online. I looked for 2nd hand of course. I found a nice looking ensuite sized one for $30 but wasn’t sure without seeing it. I found a really nice looking pale blue cast iron and enamel one nearby but when I tried to go see it, turned out the house was on top of the mountain and I almost had a heart attach when my wheels started to spin on a tight uphill bend.

My car doesn’t have good traction.

See, I’d arranged for our plumber to come over this morning to do some work and fit the new sink while he’s here. Plus the new gooseneck tap for the kitchen sink. I hate low taps in kitchens. Bad enough I only have a single tub sink but to have a low tap as well was like adding insult to injury.

I lived with it for 2 years. It was time.

In the end, with the plumber’s visit looming and no sink to be found, I dragged Wayne to Bunnings yesterday and had him pretend to wash his hands in a couple of smaller sinks to try them out. (He loved that!)

I ended up buying a pretty little squarish sink for $99, plus whatever for the tap.

Then we traipsed off to visit Anna, pick up the chairs her husband made, give her the painting I’d done, had a swim etc. While having fish and chips for lunch at Opossum Bay, I noticed a note in the window which said “pedestal sink, good condition $20, see John” and an address just around the corner.

Everyone started to tease me. I’d spent over $100 on my sink and I could have gotten that one, etc.

Don’t mess with me. They didn’t think I’d go…

I did.

John was the sweetest stooped little old man, he showed me the sink in his shed, telling me it came from the bungalow in his back yard which the kids had renovated and replaced everything old with new stuff. He said he hadn’t wanted to advertise it but a sign in the shop was enough, he only need to find the “right person, someone just like you who loves old things”.

So I bought it.

Being me, I also bought a solid timber door he had in the shed. It was right behind the sink. I looked at the sink, said I’d come back with the trailer and get it and btw, would he sell me the door? We think it might be huon pine. Great value at $20!

The sink isn’t plumbed in yet, (I had cleaned it, but dirty boots got it!) we forgot its a public holiday and when the plumber came up he couldn’t buy the bits and pieces he needed to finish the job. He’ll be back tomorrow. Meanwhile I undercoated the back wall so it would be easier to paint later.

The timber in that area is old timber from piles we found in the paddock. Wayne re-used all the best bits to line out that room. I’ll need to re-undercoat it to stop the wood stains from coming through, but it should be ok.

By tomorrow afternoon we’ll have a usable sink in the mudroom.

Yipee!

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tillie and toby

Posted on March 4, 2013 by zefiart

Tillie and Toby – that smudge in the top right corner isn’t on the painting. I did it while cropping the image…

Finally.

I’ve finally finished the dog portrait I started weeks ago.

Why did it take so long you ask? Well, sometimes things just click.

Then other times they don’t.

This was one of the “don’t” times. When I started I got Toby right straight off – he clicked. (that’s the little black dog.) I felt I captured his expression straight away.

Tillie was much harder. She looks like an ewok or cousin It. She’s the sweetest dog in real life, but I just couldn’t find HER under the hair.

In the end I think I scrubbed her out and redrew her three times.

I’m using pastels on Art Spectrum pastel paper – this paper is like very fine sandpaper so it holds pastel really well, but it also allows you to wipe it off and even wash it off with a damp sponge and redraw over it.

I’m finally happy with it now and I can say I’m so relieved. I thought I’d never finish it and I’d never get my new adirondack chairs. They’re the trade you see. If I never finished the painting, I’d never get my chairs.

The deck isn’t finished yet of course. I’m still painting the house. Like a greek: siga siga.

That means “slowly slowly”. Wouldn’t want to over-exert ourselves now, would we?

I did a bit of painting this weekend. I worked on the front part of the house, undercoating 2 sections of the rails and posts before I ran out of my 3 in 1 Prepcoat/Sealer/Undercoat.

(I was really glad to run out ’cause I hate painting with oil based paints. The reprieve is temporary… I have to buy more.)

Then I moved to the back of the house where I started painting the topmost bits of wall and under the eaves. This is slow going, greek or not. Its climb up, paint above your head, get down, move the ladder, find a relatively stable spot to put it, climb up, paint above your head. Repeat endlessly.

I think I did about 2/3 of that side before I decided to call it a day. The horses, chickens, ducks and dogs all needed feeding. Not to mention the human.

Today I spent all my energy brushcutting the weeds in our yard. Its ridiculous really. We have “journey to the centre of the earth” cracks in what used to be our lawn and is now a crispy desert, and yet along the fenceline we have weeds and thistles almost waist high.

On the plus side, the garden is producing well. I’m being over-run by tomatoes, zucchinis and apple cucumbers. Don’t get me wrong, I love fresh home grown produce. Especially the tomatoes and cucumbers… but they’re staging a revolution in there, I swear. Every time I look around they’ve multiplied!
z

home is where I hang my hat

Posted on February 18, 2013 by zefiart

Its way too hot to be doing much today. They’re predicting 35 degrees in Hobart and that means at least a couple of degrees hotter in the Derwent Valley.

Life on the farm has been going well, if you don’t dwell on the fact that we’re seriously close to running out of water and desperately need rain.

And we don’t grow crops. We only have 3 horses feeding on about 11 acres of pasture. And we have bore water so we can water at least parts of the pasture every day and keep the horses in fresh water.

Progress on the house painting is slow. I’ve been lucky enough to have the help of a friend from the mainland. I met Basia when she was a real estate agent, she sold my house in Melbourne for me before I moved to Tasmania in 2003. We stayed in touch and she visits almost every year. Till now she’d only ever visited Tasmania to hike and cycle, stopping in with me for a day or two at the end of her trip.

This year Basia came over to pick cherries and look for other work so she’s been staying in my house in Fentonbury. She’s the best guest ever – she’s always doing stuff! On her various visits she’s done tons of gardening, this time she’s helped paint the house on two long days, fixed curtain tracks and hemmed curtains for my house in Fentonbury.

On Saturday she came over and we painted the north and east sides of the house – all that’s left to do now is paint the top bits (including the underneath of the roof) on 3 sides, topcoat the window frames and paint rails on 2 sides.

Ok, that’s not a small job, but its manageable. The majority of the work has been finished. I’ll do the rest over a few weekends, providing the weather ~~doesn’t suck~~ isn’t too hot.

Meanwhile I’m on a roll of some kind… I’m itching to do things. This happens to me every now and then. This time I’ve concentrated the feeling on doing something in the kitchen.

I have an ugly kitchen. At least its ugly in my opinion. The people who put it in loved it.

I dream of a country kitchen… all white on white, with some minty green or aqua, antiques and rustic items on display…

Over the last year I’ve been trying to make it more Zefi-friendly in small ways that don’t include knocking down a wall, putting a bigger window in a more appropriate spot (which will mean moving the hot water cyclinder), putting in a new sink, moving the stove, putting in more drawers and getting rid of those horrible corner cupboards who’s doors keep falling off their hinges, getting a new, not blue laminate, benchtop…

One of the things in this kitchen is the huge pantry cupboard. Its handy. Sure. But its a big flat blob of white laminate. I’ve been thinking of making it into a big flat blob of chalkboard….

Here’s my vision thanks to the miracle of Photoshop:

Nice huh?

Ok… nice for Zefi!

This morning, among other things, I removed the handles and filled one of the holes. I have some cute little knobs I want to use.

Stay tuned…

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Motivate Me Monday at Keeping it Simple

losing a friend…

Posted on January 31, 2013 by zefiart

… but gaining a place to visit.

Merrill is on her way to her new home in Victoria right now.

She decided that the climate in Tasmania didn’t suit her health-wise and that the artist inside her was crying for an environment more conducive to creating.

Here’s hoping that Victoria is that environment.

It does sound lovely… and the adventure! I envy her the excitement of a new home, a new place, meeting new people. I think its a wonderful opportunity and glad she decided to go for it.

I convinced her to start a blog so I set one up for her this afternoon. Take a look and tell me what you think:

MORRphing

I’ll let her explain the title.

Meanwhile I’ve been feeling rather seedy lately. I’ve been flirting with the flu for about a week now – I got the sore throat, the headache, the chills, the dry coughing which keeps me up half the night. I didn’t get the fever luckily.

As a result though, I haven’t done much. Then again, I could blame Merrill and having a guest for not getting anything done…

Or the fact that Wayne’s away so I have to do everything around here on my own. Nothing makes you appreciate the other person as much as taking on their chores.

I got home yesterday and spent 2.5 hours feeding chickens, horses, dogs and ducks, burying a wallaby one of my dogs killed in the morning, turning on the pump and watering the paddocks, flipping to the other pump to fill the tank, watering the vegie patch…

I was exhausted by the end of it.

What made things take longer was the fact the Ben is down the road currently, at boot camp. He’s with a friend who’s teaching him manners and giving him experience having someone on his back (and not throwing them off).

Here’s hoping I get a horse I can actually ride at the end of it.

However, having him down the road adds to the chores as I have to drive down and feed him twice a day… not as easy as walking down to the paddock to feed the horses.

So I have nothing new to share. No new projects. No new decorating or crafting. I did manage to sort the lids in the plastics cupboard. I was sick of the mess in there so I used two ice cream tubs to hold lids.

Nothing too exciting.

Next item on the agenda: organise the pots cupboard and the lids in there…

and organise the pantry…

Baby steps…

name and shame…

Posted on January 14, 2013 by zefiart

Yes, he’s so cute.

He looks so sweet and innocent. Dopey even. Mommy’s boy. A sook and a cuddler.

But leave him alone in the house with nothing to do and this is what I come back to:

Romeo.

Yep. That’s the one.

He’s not so innocent or sweet after all.

He’s a pillow killer. And a doona killer (who can forget this?)…

And, it turns out… he’s the chook killer.

Not that I have proof. But the circumstantial evidence is mounting up.

Yesterday he was out in the paddock for ages with Wayne as he worked on the stable (which, btw, is looking great). He was good all day.

Then, just as Wayne was getting ready to knock off and come in, Romeo went off after a chook. I heard the squalking and the swearing and ran out. We called him off the chase, but he did it.

There’s no denying the fact that he went after a chook.

Sigh.

Anyhow, here is the stable – the third bay is up, walls finished. All it needs is a roof (and guttering and a rainwater tank) which the guys will be putting up this weekend . If all goes well. Looks like we’ll have stables for the horses for this winter!

Meanwhile we’re looking after a friend’s golden retriever while she’s on a bushwalk for 3 days. He’s a gorgeous boy. Who can resist those soulful eyes?

His name is Maru. She adopted him when the chinese students who owned him returned to their country and left him behind about 8 years ago. She said she’d foster him till he found a new home and a week turned into years. He’s 12 now.

The poodles noses were out of joint but I’m not sure who’s more worried about who… I know Maru is a bit worried about going into poodle territory unless I’m there to usher him in (he clings to me, so sweet), but I’ve seen the way the poodles both give him ample personal space.

Maru will grumble and let them know when he’s not happy!

Anyway, there’s a truce going on now, he’s been accepted as part of the pack so all is well. Though he’s NEVER allowed out into the paddock. He doesn’t know horses and I thought Wally had surely killed him last time he went out there (while he was visiting with his mom). He went for Wally not realising that Wally doesn’t back off to dogs, then flopped into a submissive position when Wally returned fire. Our dogs know to run when horses go after them. So Wally stomped on him. That’s what I saw. Wayne says he didn’t… but I was sure we had a dead dog.

Thankfully he’s fine and that was over a week ago now.

Phew.

A chook killing poodle is more than enough to deal with!

a new place to store eggs

Posted on January 12, 2013 by zefiart

Today was a day of relaxation and enjoying eachother’s company at Wind Dancer. No house painting.

We started the day with a sleep in, some time just sitting quietly and watching our animals, a brunch of french toast, bacon, maple syrup and banana… Then we spent some time reading and relaxing.

Then we went grocery shopping.

Ok, that wasn’t relaxing but we started out going for a drive to a small town I thought we’d be able to have a coffee in a cute cafe and explore the antique shops. Turns out the town had ONE antique shop and no cafes… Who knew?

Anyway, since I haven’t done much new lately in terms of craft or decorating, I thought I’d share my cute little egg cabinet. I found this at a local op shop a couple of weeks ago. I just loved it! Had to have it. Even Wayne agreed it was gorgeous.

So now I’m the one in charge of storing our eggs cause I have a strict rotation system. Fresh eggs go into the cabinet, then when that fills up, are moved into the fridge. Wayne tried to grasp my rotation method but decided it was safer to just let me handle it.

I now find eggs all over the kitchen where he leaves them for me to store.

On the subject of eggs… we lost 2 chickens in the last 2 days.

I’m not impressed. I found one of our black chooks dead in the yard yesterday afternoon, and this afternoon Wayne found one of the brown ones dead.

Both had been obviously killed by the dogs. But this is what I don’t get. Yesterday morning when Wayne went out to the hen house, one of the black hens must have come into the yard… But neither he, nor I heard any sounds at all.

Later on, while grooming, poodles locked in the house and Barney and Mischa in the yard, I did hear some loud sound. I went outside and saw nothing untoward, thought I’d simply heard the rooster crowing and went back to work.

Well, now I think it was Barney and Mischa killing that chook. Because there was no sound of squabbles or anything later on when all the dogs were in the yard.

This afternoon when Wayne went out to feed the chickens and put them in the coop he said he was there, with the dogs the whole time. He said they ran around and ignored the ducks and chickens like they usually do. There was no chasing or squalking or sounds you’d associate with a chicken hunt. Yet there was a dead chicken with obvious bite marks on her and still warm.

I just don’t get it. They’ve all been so good at ignoring the chickens for so long, why this suddenly?

I am heartbroken.

On a happier note, one of our chickens is sitting on 5 eggs. We plan to catch them soon as they hatch and put them in a pen to get them through chick-hood. If we don’t the birds or stray cat we’ve seen around here will get them as they do the ducklings.

We’ve lost all the ducklings we had a couple of weeks ago.

Sigh.

Its nature I guess.

house painting – taking the first step

Posted on January 8, 2013 by zefiart

Well, I finally got started doing something productive on my holiday. Like painting the house. The outside of the house.

Ever since we moved here I’ve wanted to paint the house a different colour to the one it is currently. I don’t particularly like that creamy yellow colour every other house seems to be painted. Like there’s been a huge sale on that colour for the last 15 years…

It took me a while to pick the colour I wanted and I spent many drives dangerously paying more attention to the houses on either side than the road ahead. I’d gone for a pale grey green for my house in Fentonbury and I still love that colour, but I wanted something different this time. More grey… but a warm grey.

I found a house I absolutely loved one day and I’d found my colour! I put a note in the letterbox asking the owners if they knew the name of the colour. Surprisingly, I got an email letting me know the colour was Wattyl White Pepper. Fantastic.

Step 1 accomplished. I had the colour of my dream home.

Of course, our house is downright ugly compared to the house of my inspiration, but with the addition of the porch and the new enclosed mud room its not quite as bad as it used to be, though there’s no chance it will win any beauty contests any time soon.

So, I had my colour picked out. All I had to do was wait till my holiday to get started.

Then I had to wait till the Christmas busy-ness was over.

Then I had to wait for the weather to get better.

I finally started working on it after the worst of the heat wave was over. First I had to evict quite a few birds from their nests. Then I got out the high pressure water cleaner and hosed down the south side of the house (the short, shady side).

First I undercoated the raw timber on the mud room and the blue aluminium window frames on the south side.

Today I started the first topcoat on the newly undercoated mudroom walls. I was doing great till the wind picked up so much it blew paint right off my brush. When it started drizzling I knew it was time to stop for the day.

Only in Tasmania can we go from 33 degrees one day to cold the next.

The dogs, of course, were there to help me every step of the way!